


The Heart Comprehends All Foreseeable Futures

by BridgetMcKennitt



Category: Push (2009)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-18 14:44:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BridgetMcKennitt/pseuds/BridgetMcKennitt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Happy twenty-first birthday, Cassie. Did you ever think you'd see the day?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Heart Comprehends All Foreseeable Futures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiophile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiophile/gifts).



> Here's a treat from me to you. Happy Yuletide!

Cassie watched the hands on the clock tick. There was five minutes to go before midnight and she wanted to savor every second.

A door opened behind her and closed, but Cassie didn't look away from the clock. She didn't have to be a Watcher to know it was only Nick.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you a watched pot of water never boils?" She heard him drop his keys on the counter and shrug off his jacket. Nick was a noisy person, no subtlety at all to his movements. Yet he knew how to keep himself off a Watcher's radar and kept them safe for years, so that was something at least.

"It's a good thing I'm not boiling water then." Two more minutes until midnight. "Where were you? I thought we promised no excursions into the city until the weekend."

"This was important. I had to get something and there wasn't time to do it earlier." One minute.

Cassie tuned him out as her eyes trailed the seconds hand. As soon as it reached 12, Nick placed something next to her and kissed the top of her head. "Happy twenty-first birthday, Cassie. Did you ever think you'd see the day?"

"I've seen glimpses of it, but most of those visions had us running and dirty. I like my actual birthday." Cassie turned to see what Nick got her and blinked at the bottle of vodka sitting there. "This is for me?" she asked as she glanced at Nick.

He shrugged before sitting down next to her and reaching for the bottle. "Well, yeah. You've said alcohol helps your visions to be clearer and you're finally legal. Happy birthday."

She stared at him, her lips thinned into a line, before letting out a snort. "That's thoughtful. I'm surprised. Thank you."

"I can be a thoughtful guy." He popped open the bottle and offered it to Cassie. "Take a sip and tell me what you see."

Cassie did just that, taking a large swig of vodka before handing it back to Nick. "And if I see something you don't like?"

"Then it'll just be another day of us against the world." He nudged her shoulder with his and waited. "So come on, tell me what you see. I can grab your notebook if you want."

She shook her head before closing her eyes. "I can do this." Cassie pressed her fingers against the temples of her forehead and she forced the visions to come. The vodka helped to ease the way and pictures began forming into her mind.

Nick was laughing, his face slightly unshaven as he held a bouquet of flowers in his right hand. She saw herself in the corner of her vision, laughing at something Nick said. He offered the bouquet of flowers to her and gathered her up in his arms, lifting her off the ground with the movement. They looked so happy, in a way Cassie hadn't been able to feel in a long time, and Nick bent his head as their lips touched...

Cassie jerked backward and Nick grabbed her so she wouldn't crash into the ground. "Whoa! You okay, Cassie?"

She averted her gaze so she didn't have to look at Nick as she tried to catch her breath. In every vision she's ever had, she had never seen anything like what she had just seen. It didn't seem possible.

"I think you should get your money back because that was some funky vodka." Cassie let out an awkward laugh. "It was nothing."

Nick made a noise of disbelief. "That wasn't nothing. You don't almost fall out of your chair because of nothing."

Nick was right, but she wasn't going to tell him what she saw. She couldn't. "Fine. I saw the two of us falling off a carousel and there were children laughing at us, so if that was another of your surprises, I want to veto it."

"It wasn't, but good to know." He patted her head before taking the vodka with him. "Okay, so I'm sorry your birthday present was a bust. I'll do better next time, okay?"

"You do your best, that's all I can ask for." Cassie stared at the motel room they were held up in and meant it. It was a shithole of a motel somewhere inside Cebu, Philippines, but it was clean and they were safe. Outside she could hear children laughing. "So where are we heading tomorrow? I hear Paris is nice this time of year." No, not Paris. That was a romantic city and she didn't want Nick to get any ideas, except she wasn't sure if where they....if that was in Paris in the first place.

Cassie muttered under her breath. She should have drawn it so she could study it better.

"I was thinking we could meet up with Hook in Canada. He could use our help."

"Works for me. I'll book us a flight."

In the meanwhile, the future could change with any moment, and this was one future she didn't want. She could change it. She was going to change it.

***

Cassie Holmes was twenty-one, alive, and a target of Division. They didn't like the losses they incurred when she was thirteen and met Nick, and they didn't like when they mounted a rescue for her mom. Being in Division's clutches for so long had taken its toil on her mom and she could barely speak. When she did, it was incoherent fragments that Cassie couldn't tell if it was part of the future or something else.

It meant that, to keep her mom safe, she and Nick had to travel to keep Division distracted and away from her mom. A Shadow was her mom's full time companion. It meant, for her birthdays, she couldn't be there to celebrate with her.

"Cheer up, pipsqueak. I'm sure if your mom could, she'd call to wish you a happy birthday."

Cassie rolled her eyes at Nick even though his back was turned to her and he couldn't see it. "I'm not a pipsqueak. We've been almost eye level for a couple of years now."

"You'll always be that annoying kid who got me beat up by Division agents to me." He shifted just enough so he could flash a grin and Cassie felt a knot in her stomach form. The vision she had in Cebu still haunted her. The future was continuously changing, but she kept half expecting Nick to kiss her. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

"Hook says there's Division activity in the city, but he doesn't know exactly what or where. Think you can Sniff out some clues?"

"Not a Sniffer," she muttered as she grabbed her notebook and pens. She still wasn't in her mom's league when it came to Watching, but she had come a long way since she was thirteen.

The last couple of years, when there was Division activity going on, it meant they were kidnapping psychics by the dozens and injecting them with their serum. In all this time though, only Kira had survived the injection and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't catch her. They were desperate and their counterparts in other countries were the same.

It wasn't safe to be a psychic nowadays.

Fortunately, it wasn't hard to track their movements. Division agents followed the same SOP wherever they went and Cassie narrowed her ability towards those movements.

Her pen moved over the notebook paper until an image of a building formed. Two Division agents, one Sniffer and the other a Mover, were posted outside the building. Inside the building, on the fifth floor, was a psychic.

Cassie opened her eyes and showed her sketch to Nick. "They're after another psychic. You'd think after a few years, they would try something else."

"Maybe. I'll call Hook and let him know."

As Nick went out onto the balcony to make his call, another vision hit Cassie. Nick was bloodied, shirt ripped, but he was the one trying to calm _her_ down. His hands were on her face and she couldn't stop crying. Nick kissed her and she leaned in to deepen the kiss, like the world would end if she wasn't kissing him.

Cassie bit back a shriek to keep from catching Nick's attention. This was the second vision she'd had of them kissing and it was no less disconcerting than the first one. What in the present was causing her visions? She could track intent of her subjects which meant either her or Nick intended to move their relationship to an entirely new level. It wasn't her so that left Nick as the culprit.

Nick stepped back in from the balcony as he slipped his phone into his back pocket. "Hook says thank you and he knows what building you drew, so he'll take it from here."

"Great," she said, noticing immediately how high her voice sounded. She cleared her throat and tried it again. "So where to next?"

"That's up to you. I was thinking we could go on vacation and I was hoping you had some ideas."

She didn't know the location of her second vision, only that it didn't look the same from the first vision of them kissing. Cassie needed to talk to someone and it couldn't be her mom or Nick for obvious reasons.

"Where is Emily Wu currently?" she asked, blurting out the words. "I haven't seen her lately."

"I think she's residing in Amsterdam. Why?"

"I was thinking we should visit her."

Nick gave her a curious look but shrugged his shoulders in response. "Okay. I'll book us a flight."

***

When it came to dodging Division agents or planning strategies and counterattacks, Cassie was well versed on those subjects. When it came to things like dating or kissing or boys in general, Cassie was clueless. Her entire life was like a movie, and not the romantic comedy kind. She needed advice and Emily seemed knowledgeable enough to help her.

Nick had taken the window seat which gave Cassie the excuse to keep glancing his way. He slept peacefully which Cassie wouldn't have expected since he'd been running longer than she'd been alive. Right, he was older than her. She often forgot that because his immaturity put him at her age, but he was much older than her. She hadn't thought about Nick as more than her friend and partner in crime, not until her visions suggesting different.

"At least I'm of age," she muttered to herself before shaking her head. Just because her visions showed her that future didn't mean it would come true. The future was always changing. She needed to talk to Emily. Everything was so confusing.

Cassie took one last look at Nick before sighing. It wasn't like Nick was hideous or anything. He was just...Nick. For good or bad, he was her Nick.

"I can feel your gaze on me. Stop being weird," Nick said without looking at her or opening his eyes.

"I'm not! I'm looking out the window." She huffed and leaned back in her chair.

"Because the view of clouds is so amazing." Nick reached over and patted Cassie's hand. "Just a couple more hours and we'll be in Amsterdam. Emily knows we're coming though I couldn't tell her why exactly."

Nick let the sentence drag out, as if he hoped Cassie would fill him in. She wasn't.

"I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we land." Cassie closed her eyes and attempted to fall asleep.

A spike of turbulence woke her up a couple of hours later and she was hit by another vision. They were lying in bed in some cheap motel somewhere and Nick had his arms wrapped around her with his chin resting on the top of her head. She looked calm and happy, they both did, and something Nick said made her laugh. He smiled and kissed her hair before tightening his hold.

"Wake up, Cassie," Nick said, unaware that she just had a vision. "We're going to land in about twenty minutes."

"Thanks." She sat up in her chair and took in some deep breaths. Her fingers ached for some pens and her notebooks so she could try and make some sense out of her visions. "Nick, what do you think of me?"

"Hm?" He glanced her way with an eyebrow raised.

She shrugged. "You've known me since I was thirteen and we've been inseparable since then. You must have some opinion."

"Uh, I guess? You're Cassie. We try to keep each other out of trouble."

"Okay, but what do you think of me as a person?"

"You're the best person I know and that hasn't changed since the day I met you."

***

Emily opened the door to her apartment and greeted them both. She looked Cassie over before giving her a nod and stepping aside to let them in. "It's good to see you both. Nick didn't give a reason for the visit."

"He didn't know. I wanted to ask you a question." She glanced at Nick and he rolled his eyes before heading towards the door.

"Fine, I know when I'm not wanted. I saw a cafe a block from here. I'll wait there and get something to eat." He gave them a little wave before closing the door behind him.

When Nick left, Cassie turned back to Emily. Before she could say anything, Emily raised her hand. "I have some tea and cookies in the living room. I have a feeling we will need the sustenance for this conversation."

Emily was probably right. She followed Emily into the living room and sat across from her at the table as Emily poured them tea. Emily handed Cassie a cup before taking a sip from her own.

"So what did you want to talk about that Nick couldn't be here to hear our conversation?" Emily arched her eyebrow.

Cassie fiddled her her cup, trying to figure out how to answer Emily. "I've been having visions lately and they've been confusing me. I don't know what to think."

"Does this have something to do with Division?"

Cassie shook her head. "No, it doesn't. It is a lot more personal. The visions are about me." And Nick, but she didn't have the guts to say that.

Not that it mattered when Emily's mouth made a little o shape like she heard Cassie's unspoken words and Cassie went back to looking at her tea. She gripped the cup like it was her anchor. "Yeah," she muttered.

"Is that all?" Cassie looked up sharply to meet Emily's gaze. "What? I thought you were going to ask about something complicated, not visions of you and Nick."

"But it _is_ complicated! Nick and I aren't like that. We do not randomly end up kissing each other like we can never get enough," Cassie said, hissing out the last sentence. "So why am I seeing visions of that?"

"You're the Watcher between the two of us, you tell me." Emily sipped her tea once more. "Have you tried changing the present in order to avoid that future?"

"I tried but new visions of the same thing keep appearing." Cassie groaned. "I don't know know what to do to make them stop."

"There are two obvious answers. I'll tell you both of them so you can decide on a plan of action. The first is to do nothing and let your visions come true. The second option is to talk to Nick and let him know what's going on. Between the two of you, you should be able to come up with something that will make the both of you happy."

"What if he wants the visions to come true? With us, you know, kissing and holding hands?"

Emily shrugged a shoulder. "Then you need to decide whether you want a relationship with Nick or not, and if it's not, then you and Nick will have to part ways for good. If it makes any difference, Cassie, Nick is a good looking man and he cares for you deeply. The future isn't a scary place for you with him by your side, no matter the context."

"I know. Thanks for the talk, Emily." Just as Cassie reached for a cookie, her sight blurred into another vision. Nick was sitting at a table outside the cafe near Emily's apartment with a slice of pie in front of him. He had an indulgent smile on his face just as Cassie came into view and sat across from him. He pushed the pie towards her. The vision faded and Emily was looking at her. Cassie cleared her throat. "I have to go. Thank you again."

As Cassie got to her feet and headed towards the door, Emily called out. "Be careful, Cassie."

Just like in her vision, Nick was sitting at a table outside the cafe with a slice of pie. She slowed her stride so Nick wouldn't see her just yet. Emily was right, he was good looking and in the end, he was Nick. Just Nick. He was nothing to be afraid of, not when she had been thirteen and certainly not now. He was the closest thing to family she had and she loved him.

She closed the distance between them and before he could greet her, Cassie bent her head and kissed him, closed lips and it was more like a peck, before sitting down in the chair across from him. Nick stared at her with a confused expression on his face.

"Okay, what brought that on?" he asked.

"Nothing. Everything." She shrugged her shoulders before reaching over and sliding his pie towards her. "I needed to see something." She picked up a fork and began eating.

"I know you haven't had a normal life ever, but seeing is with your eyes not with your lips."

"For this, I needed to see with my lips." Cassie pointed her fork at him. "You're a terrible kisser. I don't even know why I was so worried about it."

Again with the confused expression on Nick's face. Cassie couldn't help but laugh. "I've been having visions of us kissing and that's why I wanted to talk to Emily. She told me it's you and I shouldn't worry because whatever happens between us isn't scary."

"That makes sense, I guess. Are you saying you want a relationship between us?"

"We already have one, Nick, and that's the point. Whether that involves kissing is something we can decide on later. The point is, my visions don't have to scare me anymore, not the ones where we're kissing anyway."

Nick laughed before sliding his pie back towards him. "Okay. None of this is making sense, but okay. For future reference though, what you just gave me was not a kiss."

"Yes it was!"

"Nope, it wasn't. That's the kind of kiss you give babies and toddlers. If you want a real kiss, I can provide that." He waggled his eyebrows.

Cassie laughed. "Sure, yes. I'd like that."

Nick picked up his own fork and sliced a piece of from the pie. "So, in those visions you'd been having of the two of us, was it hot? Was I an awesome kisser?"

"You were."

"See, proof." Nick reached across the table to pat Cassie's hand. "You're the best thing that ever happen to me, Cassie. Don't ever think otherwise."

Nick's smile made Cassie feel warm inside and she took a deep breath. Between the two of them, they could figure out the future. They always did.


End file.
